St Clare of Assisi Downsfield Road CHESTER CH4 8HH
at 1230pm on Sunday 17 June 2018
Very often in this world, we mistake what we want with what we need. We think (or imagine) that we need all the things of this world that bring us pleasure. These are not real needs. We see many in the world living without the things that we think we need. The commercial interests of our society have mastered the advertising industry to the point of convincing many that they have a real need for their products. These are not true needs, but rather imaginary needs, or actually nothing more than wishes or desires.
The things we wish or desire are very often not the best things for us. These things often bring temporary pleasure, but then, fill us with pain and suffering. Having created the misery, the commercial industry is quick to offer us another solution to our misery with another product that, likewise, only offers a temporary pleasure rather than, a real happiness.
Just as Jesus pulled away from the crowd to be able to speak to them, so very often God pulls away from us so that we can hear Him once again. When He is near us we are very busy telling Him about our material wants and needs, and we give little attention to our immortal souls. We desire and pursue fleeting pleasures, and forget to look for lasting happiness.
Jesus got into the boat of Peter and pulled away from the crowd to create a barrier between Himself and the people with the water. To get near to Jesus one would have to board Peter's boat. Today, if we are desirous of drawing near to Jesus, we must enter the bark of Peter — the Catholic Church.
From the Church, God does dispense many material goods to His faithful, but the chief gifts that He dispenses are the goods of the soul — grace — through the Sacraments. God is always near us by His omnipresence and this gives us joy, and a desire to not let this joy slip through our fingers. But, this joy is an obstacle to our true happiness. Hence, we are admonished to deny ourselves and take up our daily crosses. In denying ourselves the temporary joys of this world, we open up the lines of communication from God. The communication of material things is generally only our prayers to God. We fill His ear with our wants and "needs" because God is good He often answers those prayers and gives us the things we seek. However, we seldom know what is really good for us, and what we are seeking are not the true graces that God so lovingly and eagerly desires to shower upon us.
We need to silence the cries of our flesh, and begin seeking to know and follow God's Will. It is not what we want that is important; the only thing that is important is God's Will. We learn God's Will for us after we are physically distanced from Him, and silence the cries of our bodies. Then He will speak to us and we will learn from Him what He wants from us. We have wasted too much time telling God what we want from Him, when He already knows this. What is needed is for us to listen to what He wants from us.
In the Catholic Church, we find a sanctuary. This sanctuary puts a barrier between God and the people, just as the boat of Peter but a barrier between Jesus and the multitude. We are not permitted to rush forward and press upon Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, but must remain a short distance away, and listen to His Word in the Gospel, the Epistles, the sermons, etc. Once we have given our attention to Jesus and heard His words, we are inspired with what God desires from us. Then, after this, He invites us not to just approach Him, but to even receive Him into our bodies. He approaches to the edge of the sanctuary, and we approach from our side — meeting at the Communion rail, where He gives us the greatest good of all — Himself.
How truly sad it is that so few come to hear the Word of God, and even fewer come to receive Him in the Holy Eucharist. St. Peter, instructed by Jesus, let out his nets and drew in a great multitude of fishes; the Church has let our her nets and has drawn in a great multitude of souls. While there were many that were drawn in, there were many more that were not. It should be our greatest desire to be among those drawn into the bark of Peter; for, only in his boat was Jesus to be found. In the same way, it is only in the Catholic Church that the true Jesus is to be found. It is only in Her that we can hear Jesus speak to us and receive Him.